The Descent Into Madness

Dan Balz looks like a complete idiot for trying to balance the character attacks from the Barack Obama campaign and John McCain campaign, as the crowds of screaming hordes at McCain rallies sink deeper and deeper into the sewer.

"He promised higher taxes on electricity," McCain charged at the event in La Crosse, Wisconsin. "He voted for the Democratic budget resolution that promised to raise taxes on people making just $42,000 a year." At that point, the woman yelled "traitor," and both McCain and his wife Cindy appeared to look in her direction.

The Arizona Senator continued with his stump speech without referencing her.

There is nothing ingenuous about this. McCain and the RNC are raising the Bill Ayers issue every chance they get, and top surrogates are calling Obama "a guy of the street". The ugliness is widespread and the demonization is palpable.

Thursday's debate took place in front of a highly partisan crowd in the GOP stronghold of Middle Georgia.

Chambliss supporters waved "Saxby" signs and offered up a sustained "boos" when Martin mentioned Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"Bomb Obama," one woman hollered.

I don't buy the hand-wringing from the McCain campaign for one minute. They're trying to make this a question of Obama hiding his true self, but given that he failed to disclose his own ties to the radical right-wing US Council for World Freedom, given that Sarah Palin has deep roots with secessionists and radical extremists in Alaska, given that Charles Keating, who bilked the US government out of billions, wrote a mash note to McCain in the 1980s pronouncing "I'm yours until death do us part," the idea of secrecy and character is one of true projection. Not to mention the fact that linking Obama to Ayers is ridiculous, so says THE PROSECUTOR OF THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND.

They are trying to make Obama illegitimate and unfit, and doing it in the nastiest, most dangerous way, practically inciting his supporters to riot. It's got saner people lamenting this lynch mob mentality.

"People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, the differences with Senator Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared to Senator McCain," Weaver said. "And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive."

Republicans with a shred of honor are backing away from McCain with speed:

He endorsed John McCain in the presidential primary, but now former Republican Gov. William Milliken is expressing doubts about his party's nominee.

"He is not the McCain I endorsed," said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. "He keeps saying, 'Who is Barack Obama?' I would ask the question, 'Who is John McCain?' because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.

"I'm disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues."

Including William F. Buckley's son.

It's not just a dangerous path that McCain is walking down, it's one devoid of honor. And if he winds up with blood on his hands, may he never forget it.